He. Did. NOT!

From the Deseret News, Aug 19

Monday, Senate Majority Leader Curt Bramble, R-Provo, told the Deseret News
editorial board that government doesn't work best when elected representatives
are constantly, and frivolously, overruled by the citizens they are elected to
make decisions for. In other words, the pure democracy of initiatives and
referendums doesn't work well compared to the republican form of government of
elected representatives.

Sen. Bramble apparently has a special gift for stating the obvious- we don't live in a democracy. We elect representatives. In Utah, that has had unfortunate results when the representatives forget about the people they represent. Sen. Bramble, if you do the opposite of what your constituents have expressly told you to do, you are no longer the representative you were elected to be.

The article goes on to state

Thus, a year ago those against vouchers (mostly professional educators and
public school supporters) were able to more easily collect signatures on their
anti-voucher law referendum than would be possible under current initiative law.

Easily collect signatures? Are you kiding? It was definitely not easy. Besides working sixty hours a week in my classroom, I got to go from door to door, set up a booth, make phone calls and endless rounds in the car to get those booklets and signatures. If the logistics of that seem easy, I have no idea what hard looks like. Perhaps the good senator is still clueless about just how much people did not want that law.

If the Republican majority wants to give us a Civics lecture, perhaps they should stick to the term they know best: oligarchy.

Thanks to The Utah Amicus for the heads up

Oh, well . . . best laid plans and all that

Of Mice and Men is on the Honors English 9th grade summer reading list- as one of six options. That option created a lot more fuss and bother than any of the English teachers foresaw. We thought we were covered because the book is A) a classic B) short and C) optional.

I can see other secondary teachers rolling their eyes at our lack of foresight, but we did just switch from a middle school. Back in those days our book controversies were limited to The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Twilight. That's easy to solve because who really cares if their child doesn't read The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants? I thought more people would care if their child didn't read Of Mice and Men. Turns out, some parents are more upset if their child does read it. Upset enough to make comments like this:

"I've never even heard of this book. I don't know why my child should have to read it."

"I counted ___ swear words in ___ pages."

By the by, what is the appropriate ratio of swear words per page? I think we should do a cross-curricular lesson where Math students develop a way to measure the Smut Value of their English texts.

@#8! = swear words
page = number of pages
pubyear = year of publication (because, as we all know, books just keep getting smuttier nowadays)
ageP = age of the protagonist (the SM is greater if the book is geared towards kids)
SM= Smut Value

Back to Lenny & George, though. I see where the parents are coming from, but I'm frustrated that the examination of the book went no further than counting the number of swear words. Surely, you can appreciate more than that? Surely your child can as well?

Friend & Fellow Teacher put it so: "The book is set in the Depression Era on a farm. Life was hard. The language was hard. It's very real. The beauty of reading a book like this is seeing that new worldview without being on the farm during the Depression. It makes you experience the world in a new way. These books, these classic books, they actually teach you about real life. That's why they're classics."

So, kids and parents, we hear you and we're already making a new summer reading list for next year:

• Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck


• Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger


• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou


• The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier


• a practical guide to Wicca

And yes, you will be tested on the reading. Particularly about the Wicca.

P.S.- It's been a long time since I've checked the list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books from the ALA. Of Mice and Men was sixth (yeah!).

Anyone remember when this was called a dossier?

From The Daily Herald

The three school districts in Utah County each have a different plan. In each,
teachers and district employees must apply for the bonus. The amount of the
bonus will be determined by how much each district is allocated and how many
district employees qualify for the bonus. The district cannot award more bonuses
than the money it has been allocated. ... Nebo School District created a plan
based on points that has more emphasis on test scores than other plans. For
teachers to receive the bonus, they must earn a minimum of 50 points on a
100-point scale that includes points for student achievement, good evaluations
and participation in professional development. ... Nebo's plan does leave room
for good teachers who have a batch of students who don't improve their test
scores to still receive a bonus. The money is to be allocated proportionally to
teachers who earn the minimum required point value.

After three years teaching in Nebo district, teachers already have the ability to apply for an extra stipend based on a combination of factors: measureable student improvement, parent & student evaluations, and submitted work. It's called a dossier. Every year, the teachers are warned the money isn't there- no dossier this year (the legislature stopped funding the program some time ago). Every year, our district has somehow scraped the money together to fund it, although it's less and less every year. Last year it was a $600 bonus. I don't know why the legislature abandoned the dossier funding. Why spend years trying to develop a merit pay system when our district already had one?

I'm willing play the legislature's game, and I'll appreciate the extra money. However, this whole "80 different experiments" thing sounds to me like the state legislature got tired of trying to make a feasible merit pay plan, forced the districts to do it for them, and gets to blame the districts if it doesn't work out. Maybe I'm too unforgiving of the legislature . . . but isn't it a little fishy?

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

I would love to pair this book with Orwell's 1984.

Written by Cory Doctorow (one of the contributing editors of Boing Boing), Little Brother was my favorite YA book of the summer. I loved how smart the book is- and how intrigued I felt by the plot. It's a complicated cat-and-mouse game with heavy doses of current events (Department of Homeland Security) and techno-geek ingenuity (making computers out of X-boxes).

A teenaged boy, w1n5st0n online, Marcus offline, spends his time creatively cutting class and sharpening his techno-geek skills. When terrorists strike his hometown San Francisco, Marcus and his buddies are pulled off the street for questioning by the Dept of Homeland Security. Marcus's defiant attitude and technical skill leave him marked as a security threat even after the questioning is over. Marcus is determined to outsmart and outmaneuver the ever-watchful DHS, whatever the cost.

It's a classic case of a kid being smarter than all the adults around him, trying to establish order in a world that seems to be out of control. And yet Doctorow does not make Marcus out to be the infallible hero. Rather, Marcus is always dealing with the unintended consequences of his actions, and judging whether or not he did the right thing. I enjoy picturing the class discussions I could have debating "Did Marcus take things too far? How far is too far?"

It's an exciting read. And smart. The plot moves quickly, as Marcus constantly ups the stakes with the DHS. Doctorow manages to create a believable teenage voice that is defiant without being snarky, and dead clever without being unsympathetic. Teenagers and authority figures alike will enoy the ride.

While reading, I nuzzled into my armchair wondering, "How much of this is possible right now?"- both about technology and about the over-reaching government. Cory Doctorow has written many pieces over at Boing Boing tagged copyfight or civlib . Definitely worth the read, as is Little Brother.